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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24532087">Day 0 - Alex</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/choppyVy/pseuds/choppyVy'>choppyVy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Reason To Stay [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Canon Continuation, Filler, M/M, yes all alone in a basement</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:55:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>472</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24532087</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/choppyVy/pseuds/choppyVy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens to Alex when he is kidnapped.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex Manes &amp; Jesse Manes, Michael Guerin &amp; Alex Manes, Michael Guerin/Alex Manes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Reason To Stay [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1772968</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day 0 - Alex</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Before you ask, yes there will definitely be a Day 0 - Michael companion piece to this. Hence the series status for this.<br/>Maybe more days for both, I reckon. If you are interested in reading that.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Coming to in absolute darkness if anything … helps.</p><p><br/>Alex does not want to think about how much any source of light would intensify his already blinding headache.</p><p>All sense of orientation knocked out of him, it takes him a moment to gain any sense of his whereabouts.</p><p>His whole body is pressed into a hard surface.</p><p>Tied down.</p><p>‘No, I’m just … lying on a floor. Gravity.’</p><p>Every limb heavy.</p><p>Too heavy to move.</p><p>Still, through the cold dust kicked up in his mind re-settling, very slowly, one instant sense hits sharp and clear, ‘Something is missing.’</p><p>He can pinpoint that something seconds later even through the haziness of his thoughts, drenched in ache.</p><p>Alex is used to living with pain.</p><p>And part of that pain … is missing.</p><p>He does not need light, does not even need to reach to know.</p><p>‘He has made damn sure I won’t be able to run.’</p><p>Alex takes a deep breath. The air smells of mould and wet stone.</p><p>‘A cellar of some sort.’</p><p>It is Alex’s best guess.</p><p>Guessing is a distraction.</p><p>There is no point in trying to sit up.</p><p>The ground is cold but the walls will be colder.</p><p>‘Wasn’t dressed for an abduction.’</p><p>Alex hiccups a wet sad sound, between laugh and sob.</p><p>He has been kidnapped before, in war, that is not the overwhelming part.</p><p>It is the who of it.</p><p>He can feel the cut across his forehead where he had been struck, ‘… with a cane. His cane.’</p><p>It takes effort, he reaches up.</p><p>The blood is fresh enough to still smear, stick to his fingers. ‘Haven’t been knocked out that long.’</p><p>Alex saw, of course. The who of it.</p><p>Too traumatized not to become acutely aware of someone sneaking up on him.</p><p>Fighting his mind to not process further who put him in here and what it means, really means, is exhausting ... and futile.</p><p>Especially after that conversation with Michael had just had him dig it all back up for an unpleasant session of show-and-tell definitely not suitable for kindergarteners.</p><p>‘No, not just a conversation. A fight,’ Alex thinks, finds his fingers trembling against the wound, drops his arm back down, balls fingers into a fist at his side, smearing the blood further. He breathes. Keeps pushing out breaths.</p><p>‘I can’t. I Can’t! Don’t go there. Damn it, don’t! Now is a really bad time to lose all will to live.’</p><p>The lingering taste of loss at the back of his throat does not help.</p><p>‘Michael.’</p><p>“You were right, it was all just wishful thinki-. Nothing has changed. Nothing. Nothi- ‘s better.”</p><p>Alex is used to living with pain.</p><p>But lying in absolute darkness, nothing but phantom pain in place of his prosthesis, pushing breaths past heavier growing tears and around increasingly suffocating sobs …</p><p>… Alex has real trouble holding on.</p>
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